France End To End Day 11 : My longest ever Short Ride

Well no prizes for guessing what today’s blog features. The entire ride was about Mont Ventoux, the “Beast of Provence” and the bucket list ambitions of a bunch of “ordinary” people on bikes just like me, attempting to do something pretty extraordinary beyond our own personal limits and comfort zones.

Our overnight hotel was right at the base of the climb so there was no warm up we were straight on it and I set off with my 2 LEJOG pals Richard and Darren along with my new friend and tail end charlie, George who has come all the way from Michigan to do this . Wet set off at the rear and just maintained “survival pace” the whole way and “Snapper” Richard gave us plenty of George’s “ass breaks” by his regular stopping for photos – he never misses anything and the views just got better the more we ascended.

As we set off then from the hotel there were various looks on our 4 faces as we prepared to face something we’d never attempted before. Personally I’ve struggled with the stamina requirement of daily 60-80 mile rides but the very few rides I managed in August were all aimed at preparation for Ventoux so deep down I felt that finally this might be my day.

Most of us went down the hill from the hotel to have a picture under the road sign pointing the way to “Le Mt Ventoux” as a kind of official start line then up up up we went. Like I said , we were happy to be tail end charlies and take our time but for a long stretch we didn’t really have much choice as the gradient stayed between 10-12% for around 2 miles at one stage, so it felt like a bit of a slow plod with Richard in particular perfecting the zig-zag method.

At these slow speeds on such consistently steep gradients it was difficult to take on water without introducing the possibility of an embarrassing face plant so we stopped to take on water, take photos and rest our backsides whilst George cursed the fact that we was convinced he’d been told it wouldn’t get steeper than 8% instead of the 12% we were enduring so we had the occasional “8 per cent? My ass !”

After slowly climbing through the wooded hillside of Ventoux for over 2 hours we turned a corner and suddenly the iconic tower was there in front of us and it felt quite emotional, and then a timely whatsapp message of encouragement from my son popped up on my garmin screen and I have to confess I was then in tears.

We plodded on , bouyed by the site of the tower knowing we were in the final section. It was still a tough slog but we had the end , literally in sight. I love this photo of the tower with Richard and Darren the 2 white shirted cyclists in the road in front of me with the tower literally towering above them,.

Once we gathered ourselves together there were various ways to record the unique, never to be repeated visit to Ventoux summit by bike and here are mine.

A lot of the group had been at the top and already departed by the time we got there but Dave & Lou were there still and they organised a group photo with both lots, the faster ones and the Lanterne Rouge group

It almost felt like we didn’t want to go down. Here we were, a small group of “Ordinary Blokes” still trying to come to terms with having cycled 13 miles up to this iconic summit with the 360 degree amazing views and the buzz of dozens of excited and emotional cyclists all around us getting their heads round their own personal triumph. Eventually we got round to it and took a few pictures whilst on the recognisable chalky upper slopes , past the Tom Simpson memorial before descending into forest again on the 15 mile descent into Sault and our beautifully situated hotel.

Back at the hotel we had celebration with a beer on the terrace, a group who did an extra ride after the climb resting their tired bodies on the hotel stairs

So that was it, my longest short bike ride, just 28.8 miles but with 5,236ft of climbing, all of it on one huge hill. taking almost 4 hours of cycling For someone like me that’s one surreal experience which was great to share with this group and in particular with George, Richard and Darren.

Over dinner we’ve naturally relived the experience and picked over the detail and I recommend anyone who ever rides a bike to give it a go, if I can I’m sure with a bit of training, then anyone can. In the meantime we still have 3 more days of this challenge so on to day 12 tomorrow to Moustiers-St- Marie a 70 mile ride with almost another 5,000ft uphill so we need to stop the well deserved smug satisfaction and get pedalling again.

The route map is shown below and if anyone reading this wishes to support me and Zoe’s place Baby Hospice as I try to complete this challenge my fundraising page can be found by clicking here. Bye for now !!